


He will keep you safe

by LesbianDragon_LD



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Edeleth, F/F, Family, Fluff, Sad, Sad with a Happy Ending, mentions of violence and el's nightmares
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-12
Updated: 2019-11-12
Packaged: 2021-01-29 16:44:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,190
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21413383
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LesbianDragon_LD/pseuds/LesbianDragon_LD
Summary: Edelgard has nightmares, and Byleth gifts her a fluffy knight to keep her safe.This is the journey of an armored stuffed bear and of his missions to serve his purpose.
Relationships: Edelgard von Hresvelg/My Unit | Byleth
Comments: 14
Kudos: 286





	He will keep you safe

**Author's Note:**

> I felt like writing something sad but with an happy ending (because I'm too weak for bad endings) so here we are. Plus I'm a complete sucker for edeleth family, because they would both be great moms who absolutely love their kid(s) to death.  
And I brought back my oc for this fic, it's the same Caithlyn from my previous fic named 'Motherhood.'  
Also, I rated this T just to be safe because I mention El's past, but other than that it's pretty tame.

Byleth catches her one day, during class.  
Byleth’s mind is focused on the subject she is instructing, as always. But as her eyes dart around the room mid-sentence, she catches a glimpse of Edelgard’s eyes closing, as her head rests on her hand, her chin propped up in her palm.  
Byleth keeps teaching and all her other students remain unaware of what she has witnessed. It’s not that Byleth is offended; she isn’t that uptight to demand her students to be composed and attentive at all times. Linhardt’s posture in class is the very living proof of that. In reality Byleth doesn’t give it much thought as she knows the constant training and the anxiety from everything that has happened, from dealing with thieves, assassination attempts and kidnappers, drains the energy and motivation of her students. Usually she lets them be and only calls them out on it when the subject she is lecturing is of utmost importance to them.  
But when it’s Edelgard who drifts off, well, that’s a whole different story.  
Simply for the fact that Edelgard doesn’t drift off. Ever.  
Hubert seems to be the only student who catches Byleth’s attention on Edelgard and as such he softly shakes the woman next to him, waking her up and bringing Edelgard back to reality.  
As Edelgard seems to jerk up a bit, startled, and finally opens her eyes again, Byleth can’t help noticing the bags under her eyes. No one else but Byleth and Hubert seem to notice, so the class goes on uninterrupted.  
Byleth, however, notices that Edelgard doesn’t fall asleep ever again until the class ends. She does struggle to remain awake though, and Byleth wonders what that’s all about.  
It’s not until class ends and the students leave to get lunch that Byleth calls Edelgard to her desk. Her student still looks tired, so tired in fact that she could be mistaken for being sick. She looks absolutely spent as she drags herself to Byleth’s desk, Hubert slithering behind her and ready to catch her if she falls.

“You don’t look so good…” Byleth commented the obvious, as she watched Edelgard rub her eyes, “what’s wrong?”

“My apologies, my teacher. I’ve had nightmares for days” came as Edelgard’s simple answer.

That was all that Byleth needed from her. They had already had this conversation before, so Byleth knew just how horrific her nights must have been.

“Rest, Edelgard. You’re in no condition to fight, so you’re excused from this afternoon’s training mission.”

Before Edelgard could protest, Hubert told her that the professor had a point and insisted she retired to her room, promising her he would bring her lunch. And Edelgard had no choice but to comply, too exhausted to even try anything else. She thanked her professor before she took Hubert’s arm and they both left the classroom, leaving Byleth alone with her thoughts.  
Hours passed by after, once Edelgard had eaten lunch with Hubert in her room and her loyal friend and retainer had retired, leaving her to rest alone. She tossed and turned in her bed, her body starting to ache and her head throbbing from the lack of sleep, but she was just unable to rest. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw them.  
Her siblings.  
Their deaths.  
Their attackers.  
The knives cutting her flesh as she screamed and the magic currents burning her veins and-  
Suddenly, she heard a knock on her door.  
Edelgard got up to open it, and she was surprised to see her professor standing outside her room. But what was even more surprising was what she carried;  
A stuffed bear.  
And a huge one at that.

“Professor? Is something the matter?” she asked, confused, as her eyes darted from Byleth’s face to focus on the goofy smile sewn onto the giant bear.

“I came here to check up on you, and I brought you a gift!” Byleth excitedly told her, patting the stuffed bear’s head to indicate it was meant for Edelgard.

Edelgard smiled, trying to suppress a laugh. Anyone else would have found it ridiculous to gift the heir of Adrestia such a childish gift, but that was one of the many reasons why she loved Byleth; Byleth wasn’t afraid of treating Edelgard the way Edelgard wanted to be treated: as an equal, and as a friend.  
Edelgard stepped away from the door to allow Byleth to enter her room, and she closed the door behind Byleth once her professor was inside. When she turned back to Byleth, the professor seemed excited. It was rare to see Byleth smile, and Edelgard’s heart melted at the sight.

“I bought him to help you! I know you love stuffed animals, so I thought a cuddly one would help you sleep better!” Byleth exclaimed as she handed Edelgard the bear.

Edelgard examined it as she smiled.

“He has armor” Edelgard softly laughed as her fingers traced the fake armor plates that adorned the big bear, making him seem like he was dressed as a knight, “and he even has a tiny toy sword, as well.”

“They had princesses and kings too. But I thought you’d enjoy the knight one more…he’ll do a better job keeping you safe” Byleth joked, and Edelgard laughed whole heartedly.

“Thank you, my teacher. I love this gift” Edelgard confessed as she hugged the bear tightly, pressing him against her chest as a faint blush colored her cheeks.

Byleth took her leave then, as she still had much to do. She made sure Edelgard didn’t need anything before she politely excused herself and retired to fulfill her duties. Edelgard herself returned to her bed, and as she cuddled the stuffed bear in her sleep, she was surprised the next morning to wake up well rested.

~.~.~.~

“Any signs of her?”

It had been the first question that Edelgard had asked since Hubert entered her room. Her back was turned to him, and voice was stern. Her voice was the same tone she used when she had to act as the leading emperor. And yet her voice still faltered, cracks of her sadness slipping through her words.

“No, Your Majesty. Not a single trace” Hubert told her, but unlike Edelgard he made no attempts to hide his own desperation.

“I see.”

Hubert opened his mouth to speak before he stopped himself. He wanted to tell her that they hadn’t found a body either, or a trail of blood, so that meant there was still hope left. But he knew it would be of no comfort to the empress, and that he’d just be lying to her as he lied to himself. It had almost been a full year, after all. No one could survive that long under rubble, not even if they were their professor who had escaped death so many times before. But after Byleth being so lucky, that luck would have to run out, after all.  
Unable to comfort Edelgard, Hubert decided it was best to just leave.  
He excused himself, telling her he’d be near if she needed him, as he always was. Edelgard thanked him as she heard the door close behind her. She was all alone again.  
She moved from her spot, pacing around her room.  
When she had first enrolled at Garreg Mach, her room was fairly simple. She had nothing to adorn it with, no decorations or anything remotely similar. All she had were her clothes, her weapons and her books and quills. And yet over the year, her room slowly became more filled once Byleth started giving her gifts.  
Vases with flowers. Stuffed animals. A couple of board games they played together. Among some other things, all which came from her professor.  
But then the war happened and when Edelgard took control over the monastery, she wasn’t surprised to see that her old room had been ransacked. She had taken some of her things with her before everything broke down, of course, as she had expected this to happen. But most of Byleth’s gifts she had left behind were either gone or destroyed.  
All except one.  
The stuffed bear that had kept her company during so many awful nights.  
On a desperate whim, she grabbed it, and hugged it tight.

“Please be alive…please come back to me, Byleth…I need you to be with me…” she cried to the bear as she held it, and for a moment it seemed that the bear comforted her, as if her professor was there with her, hugging her tightly in her arms.

~.~.~.~

Edelgard woke up in the middle of the night upon hearing their daughter cry.  
She turned to Byleth, and she wasn’t surprised that her wife next to her slept soundly, completely unaware of the noise.  
For a second she envied her.  
But then she heard their daughter cry out again, and she wasted no time getting up and walking to her room.

“Mommy’s here, Caithlyn. What’s wrong?” Edelgard called out once she reached the door to Caithlyn’s room, only to have the young girl dart out of bed and hug Edelgard’s legs as tightly as she possibly could.

“Mommy, I saw a monster! Can you check if he’s under my bed?” Caithlyn desperately cried out, and Edelgard could only sigh as she lead her daughter back to her bed.

As Caithlyn sat up on her bed and waited, still nervous, Edelgard pretended to check under her bed. 

“No monsters here!” Edelgard exclaimed, before she moved to open Caithlyn’s closet, showing her it was empty apart from clothes and toys, “and no monsters here either!”

“But I’m still scared, mommy. Can’t you or mama sleep here to protect me?” Caithlyn pleaded, and something in Edelgard’s mind clicked upon hearing her words.

Edelgard remembered an old memory.  
Of a young girl all alone, desperately afraid.  
Until another woman reached for her hand.

“Hold on, mommy’s going to get something” Edelgard told her as she quickly dashed back to hers and Byleth’s room. As her wife kept sleeping soundly, Edelgard opened a large wooden chest next to their bed, and retrieved an old and large stuffed bear from inside. She made her way back to Caithlyn’s room quickly, cleaning old dust from the toy as she walked back to her daughter.

“What’s that?” the young girl happily asked, her curiosity peaked upon setting her eyes on a toy she had never seen before.

“An old friend” Edelgard simply stated, smiling as she handed it to Caithlyn.

“What’s his name?” Caithlyn asked her as she took it, to which Edelgard hesitated.

“His name? Oh…I suppose I never gave him one…what do you want to name him?”

Caithlyn thought for a moment, before blurting out “Sir Fluffy!”  
Edelgard merely laughed, and Caithlyn started exploring its strange fake armor plates and the tiny sword sewn onto its hand.

“It’s Sir Fluffy because he looks like a fluffy knight” Caithlyn explained, a smile on her face that matched Edelgard’s own.

“He does look like a knight, doesn’t he?” Edelgard softly added, “your mama gave it to me once, when I was scared like you are now. Sir Fluffy will protect you at night, the same way he protected me.”

“You were scared too? But mommy, you’re not scared of anything!” Caithlyn exclaimed incredulously, and Edelgard couldn’t help laugh.

“Sweety, everyone is scared of something. Even I, and mama.”

“And uncle Hubert?”

“Oh, definitely! Uncle Hubert is too, even if he hides it. He’s very afraid of heights” Edelgard laughed, before she continued “Caithlyn, there isn’t a single person in the world who doesn’t get scared. And I myself am scared of a lot of things, you know? I’m scared of rats, and the ocean…”

‘And I’m scared of losing you and Byleth’ Edelgard thought to herself, but was unable to say it out loud to her daughter.

“But the thing is, Caithlyn… we don’t need to be scared when we have each other. You have people who care for you. Mama and I care a lot about you, along with uncle Hubert and uncle Ferdinand, and everyone else. And we’ll all keep you safe. Just like Sir Fluffy will keep you safe now, too. He’ll scare away all the monsters who try to get to you when you sleep.”

Caithlyn hugged her bear tightly against her chest before laying down again on her bed, the supposed monster long forgotten. Edelgard sat down on the bed next to Caithlyn, waiting for her to fall asleep. It only took her minutes before she was sleeping soundly again, with the stuffed bear firmly held in her arms.  
Edelgard kissed their daughter’s temple before quietly getting up, ready to join her wife in bed.  
She was surprised to turn only to see Byleth leaning against the door of Caithlyn’s room.

“You held onto him” Byleth stated, a smile on her face.

“I did” Edelgard smiled, “and he served his purpose well, but now I have another knight to keep me safe as she shares my bed.”

Byleth took Edelgard’s hand to guide her back to bed.

“Then allow this knight to serve you, my love.”


End file.
